Metallica are gearing up for their second annual Orion Music + More festival, set to take place June 8 and 9 on Belle Isle in Detroit. The lineup for the festival features Metallica, as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rise Against, Deftones, BASSNECTAR, Dropkick Murphys and many more.

With Orion on the horizon, we thought it would be a great time to catch up with Hammett and chat about his Kirk Hammett Flying V.

“When they asked me if I was interested in them doing a reproduction of my very first Flying V, of course, I said ‘yes.’ It’s a real honor for them to do that for me,” Hammett exclusively told Gibson.com. “. . . They made 500 of them, of which I got the first 5. I have to say, they’re great. I love them. I’ve been playing my own model guitars for a long time now, but it’s great to have my own Gibson model come out, and it’s definitely a different sort of feeling for me and a different vibe for me to have a Gibson model, and I’m just loving it.

“I hope that all the other people who purchased it are enjoying it as much as I do, because I think it’s a great instrument.”